A week into his term, President Barack Obama faces stark opposition while trying feverishly to gain bipartisan support.
His most outspoken dissenter comes in the form of blowhard radio host Rush Limbaugh. After years of defending President George W. Bush, Limbaugh is eager to go on the attack - rooting for Obama's failure.
Stating, "I hope he fails" on day one of Obama's presidency, Limbaugh used his radio talk show as a soapbox on which to rather proudly proclaim that he would rather see the country fall apart than leave it in the hands of a left-wing president.
Limbaugh's dissent over Obama's call for bipartisan support within Congress is nothing more than an attempt to drive a wedge between the two parties. He has made it clear that he has his own objectives in mind, and if the country has to fall in order for his objectives to be met, so be it.
This is not a man to be taken lightly. An honorary member of Congress, Limbaugh has a great deal of influence within the GOP. With thousands of listeners tuning into his nationally syndicated radio show, Obama may have met his match in someone so outrageously drawn to bipartisan bickering.
We cannot forget that this is the same man who accused Michael J. Fox of exaggerating the effects of Parkinson's disease in order to gain support for stem cell research. Limbaugh unabashedly revels in the attention that the media give his outlandish comments, so why are they adding fuel to the fire?
There has to be more going on in the world right now than some pompous old man pledging his disloyalty to our current president's policies.
Nevertheless, it is one thing to disagree with the president - Obama himself was, along with many others, against Bush's troop surge during the Iraq War.
We have the right to speak out when we think our president is steering us in the wrong direction. However, opposition is not the same as hoping for failure; Obama's failure would mean our failure.
Even if Limbaugh wants to see the policies fail, and not the man behind them, then the implications of such a failure are massive. If the country goes down, we're all going down with it whether we like it or not.
It is justifiable and very American to be skeptical of our president, and while Limbaugh's comments can be seen as selfishly unpatriotic, they do illustrate that we still have the freedom to express dissent. If anything, Limbaugh is displaying our Constitutional right of free speech.
We also have the liberty of turning the radio switch to "off" when we hear Limbaugh's smug prattle come on air.
A failing economy, terrorists running amok and wars going on for years and years - that is what we can look forward to if Limbaugh is granted his wish for Obama's failure. A lack of success by the new administration will certainly teach us all a lesson for voting "that one" into office.
Just don't think for a moment Limbaugh won't be there to tell us he was right if it happens.
Naudia Jawad is a journalism graduate student. Her column appears on Wednesdays.
